[Game] Chapter 102 & 103

Chapter 102: Eromanga-sensei!

"Wow~~ Ichin-kun went to Nintendo's headquarters? That's amazing!" Eriri exclaimed in surprise after hearing Utaha's explanation about Ichin's schedule for the day. "A development kit, huh? I’ve never seen one before. I definitely want to check it out when he gets back! Oh, oh, do you think Ichin-kun will get to meet Shigeru Miyamoto? I’m such a huge fan of Mario and Zelda!"

"I wouldn’t know," Utaha replied with a smile. "Why don’t you call Ichin and ask him to get you an autograph if he happens to meet him?"

"N-No need for that!" Eriri said smugly. "I already have his autograph. Don’t underestimate me—I’ve been to a live launch event before! But back then, I was still a kid and too shy to ask for a photo. I only managed to get the autograph."

Seeing Eriri’s proud demeanor, Utaha almost forgot that Eriri’s family was quite well-off, and her parents were also into otaku culture. It wouldn’t be surprising for her to have connections to meet some big names in the gaming industry.

As they ate their bento lunches, Eriri pulled out her phone.

"Honestly, more than autographs, I just want to know when the new Mario game will release—or if Breath of the Wild 2 will come out next year. Though that feels like a long shot. Huh? There’s a livestream?"

"A livestream of what?"

"Erm... Eromanga-sensei’s stream. It’s rare to see her streaming at noon," Eriri said.

"Eromanga-sensei?" Yukino Yukinoshita couldn’t help but chime in with a critical tone, "Who would choose such a name?"

"It fits her style perfectly!" Eriri retorted. "And Yukino, you’re in no position to criticize others. ‘Service Club’? Really?"

While opening the stream and increasing the volume, Eriri explained, "Eromanga-sensei is an illustrator who only works on light novel illustrations. Outside of that, she occasionally uploads fan art online and hosts streams. What’s unique is that she always wears a magical girl mask during streams and uses a voice changer. So far, all we know is that she’s female—nothing else about her identity has been revealed."

Utaha and Yukino leaned in to watch. Sure enough, the stream showed someone wearing a magical girl mask. Her voice was distinctly artificial, distorted by a voice changer.

"Hello, everyone! Today’s stream is a bit earlier than usual, but that’s fine. Today, we’re not doing any drawing—we’re streaming gameplay! I discovered a fantastic game a couple of days ago called Slay the Spire. I got really hooked on it! Has anyone heard of it? It’s apparently made by just one developer. That’s so impressive!"

Slay the Spire? A gameplay stream?" Utaha remarked, surprised. "I’ve heard of this illustrator before. She’s quite mysterious. But isn’t it odd for an illustrator to stream gameplay instead of drawing?"

"Not really," Eriri said casually, waving her hand. "Even Ultraman actors stream games these days. Some voice actors even become Youtubers with their own models. It’s not a big deal—it’s all about having fun. Honestly, I’ve never seen Eromanga-sensei play games before, so this should be interesting. Yukino, didn’t you also get Slay the Spire? How far have you progressed?"

Calmly eating her lunch, Yukino replied, "Both characters are at Ascension 20, but I haven’t tried the newly added robot character yet. I spent the weekend at home."

Eriri’s eyes widened in shock. "That fast?!"

"It wasn’t too hard," Yukino said nonchalantly. "I just play a little each day after studying to relax."

"Just a little each day, and you’re already that far? I didn’t expect you to be this talented at gaming, Yukino!" Eriri exclaimed. "You should come to my house sometime—I’ll recommend some games that suit you!"

"Maybe. Gaming is just an occasional pastime for me," Yukino replied, turning her attention to Eriri’s phone.

Though Yukino wasn’t well-versed in the world of livestreaming, she found herself intrigued by Eromanga-sensei’s peculiar setup. A masked streamer with a disguised voice was certainly a novelty to her.

Eromanga-sensei’s livestream had over 1,500 viewers in just 15 minutes—a testament to her popularity.

...

Chapter 103: Discussions with Nintendo

"Ahhh!! What’s going on? Is this character really that hard to play?"

In the small window at the bottom right corner of the stream, Eromanga-sensei clutched her head in frustration. Her tone was filled with despair. "I read in the comments that this character is supposed to be the easiest!"

The chat quickly exploded with activity.

- "Come on, you haven’t even cleared a single character yet!"

- "I thought you’d be a pro, but nope, you got wrecked instantly!"

- "Hahaha, finally someone as bad as me!"

While many viewers were gleefully teasing her, some experienced players offered genuine advice in the chat.

Taking their suggestions to heart, Eromanga-sensei stubbornly started another run, carefully building her deck this time. Gradually, she began to understand the mechanics of the robot character and played with more caution, avoiding her earlier mistakes.

Even so, there were still moments where her gameplay choices were so questionable that they made Eriri's blood pressure spike just watching them.

Although she showed some improvement during her gameplay session, she ultimately failed to clear the game. By the time the afternoon classes were about to begin, the three girls still hadn’t witnessed Eromanga-sensei achieving victory.

Leaving the Service Club room, Utaha, Eriri, and Yukino headed off to their respective classrooms.

Before parting ways, Utaha glanced at Eriri’s retreating figure, deep in thought.

"Livestreaming, huh? Why doesn’t she give it a shot? Oh, right—she’s way too shy for something like that."

---

Meanwhile, far away in Kyoto, Ichin and Hazuki had just finished their discussions with Nintendo. After sharing a lunch together, they continued their talks about the publishing plans for Hollow Knight.

Ichin had brought along some of the game's initial design documents and showcased some of the current progress. Nintendo’s third-party relations team was very impressed with what they saw. They immediately proposed signing an exclusivity agreement for their console—not just for Hollow Knight, but also for the already-released Slay the Spire.

As long as the agreement didn’t restrict the games from releasing on PC, Ichin had no objections to such collaborations.

The idea of releasing physical versions of his games was especially appealing to him.

Though digital game sales were becoming increasingly popular, physical copies still held a significant market share—one that wouldn’t be easily displaced in the near future.

...

T/N: Author wrote like this and I don't want to mess up chapter count later, so put like this :)